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January 2, 2018

German bakery winning converts to heartier, whole-grain breads

Photo | Contributed Whole G owner Andrea Corazzini (left) and pastry chef Kevin MacPherson
Photo | Contributed A selection of breads for sale at Whole G.
By Christopher Hoffman

You could call Andrea Corazinni a bread evangelist.

The Italian native is on a mission to convert area residents to the hearty and flavorful whole grain German breads produced by his New Haven-based Whole G bakery. It’s not easy, he confessed. His biggest obstacle: taste buds dulled by lifetimes of eating sweet and soft American white breads.

“New Haven has been incredibly receptive and welcoming, but it has been tricky,” Corazinni, 51, said. “Everyone loves white bread and sweet, and it’s a very hard habit to break to eat bread that is 80 percent whole grain and has seeds. We have done a little ‘bread-ucation.’ We gain one customer at a time, literally.”

That trickle of converts has become a steady stream. The bakery that Corazinni and his wife Kiara Matos started in 2010 in a rented Hamilton Street warehouse now supplies baked goods to about 80 area restaurants, Yale University’s dining halls and gourmet stores throughout the region. Corazinni and his team of bakers make 16 types of bread, all from scratch, ranging from 100 percent rye to white ciabatta. In recent years, the couple has opened cafes ­­– called G Cafes – in New Haven and Branford that offer sandwiches made from their breads and their baked goods.

As successful as Whole G — short for Whole German Bread — is, Corazinni wants to take it to the next level. His goal for the coming year: get his bread into supermarkets and more cafes.

“We’re still a kid, and if you ask a kid what is their utmost desire, it’s to grow up,” he said. “We want to grow up. We want to be an adult.”

Corazzini’s is a classic immigrant tale of hard work and determination — with a few twists. Originally from Abruzzi, Italy, he first came to the United States at 19 to study aeronautical engineering but soon realized school was not for him. When he learned a friend of the family was selling his textile business in Venezuela, he jumped at the chance to buy it. Corazzini moved to the South American country, built a successful textile manufacturing business and started a family.

His detour into German bread making happened by chance. Two Germans opened a bakery next to his Caracas home, and he quickly became enamored with their bread.

“I thought that the whole concept was fascinating,” Corazzini said. “The bread was amazingly good. The healthy aspect of it caught my attention.

When the pair decided to go home, he bought their business and plunged headlong into the world of German bread. Not as well known as its French and Italian counterparts, Germany has a rich and diverse bread culture based on nutritious and healthy whole grains — the country produces 300-plus varieties — instead of white flour. He began traveling to Frankfurt to master the craft of German bread making.

In the meantime, Venezuela’s economy started imploding thanks to the controversial policies of its late President, Hugo Chavez. Seeing the writing on the wall, Corazzini and his wife, who have two children — he has two more by a previous marriage — decided in 2010 to leave Venezuela. They settled on New Haven because his wife had spent a year there on a youth exchange program and remained close with her host family.

“I’d never heard about New Haven in my life,” Corazzini said.

At 43, Corazzini found himself starting all over in a new business, a new country and a new language. He and his wife invested their life savings in Whole G. In the beginning it was slow, so slow that at one point, he considered giving up. Finally, things began to pick up, he recalled.

“I thought, ‘I’m too old. This is too tiring,’” he said. “But if you believe in what you are doing, and you are doing things right, it will work. After about two years, things cleared out, and the work got a lot more enjoyable.”

As part of his expansion, Corazzini added pastries, hiring pastry chef Kevin MacPherson. In spite of his name — his father is Scottish, his mother French and he grew up in France — MacPherson is French trained. He added croissants and other delectable treats to Whole G’s offerings.

MacPherson said that the commitment to craft, quality and the best ingredients is what attracted him to Whole G.

“We don’t take any shortcuts,” he said. “Before making any money, we want to satisfy the customers. That’s why I love working for this company.”

Whole G may be doing well, but there’s no letup for Corazzini. Because many of his breads use starter instead of commercial yeast, their rising times are many hours long, requiring a 24-hour operation. He estimates that he works 60 to 70 hours a week. But that’s fine with him.

“Today, I don’t regret anything,” he said.

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